Crime theorists Flashcards
Durkheim (functions of crime)
Crime is healthy for 3 reasons
–> Boundary maintenance = people know right from wrong
–> Safety valves –> Crimes such as prostitution let of steam
–> Warning device that signifies the need for change in society
Merton (Causes of crime)
Strain theory
Cohen (subculture theory)
Argues that w/c boys within the middle class setting of school suffer status frustration and therefore turn to alternative status hierarchy’s where deviant behaviour results in status.
Clowhard and Ohlin (subcultures)
Three reactions to failure in education
–> Criminal subcultures where a community of criminals thrive and there are role models.
–> Conflict subculture where high rate of social turnover leads to gang violence
–> Retreatist subcultures where ‘double failures’ who fail at school and crime turn to drink and rugs.
Box (laws)
The laws are written by the bourgeois and therefore reflect their interests this is known as ideological law making.
Chambliss
Selective law enforcement –> The crimes of the proleteriat are disproportionately prosecuted to the crimes of the bourgeois in order to control them.
Pearce
The caring face of capitalism –> Certain laws perpetuate false class consciousness by suggesting positives to the system such as health and safety laws or a minimum wage. These laws are rarely enforced
Who argues that moral entrepreneurs influence our reaction to certain acts thus influencing the labelling process?
Becker
Cicourel
Members of the criminal justice system are influenced by typification and stereotypes and are more likely to pursue justice if the offender fits their view of the typical criminal.
Lemert (types of deviance)
Primary and secondary deviance –> Whilst both actions are illegal only secondary deviance involves the labelling and shaming of the offender leading to them internalising the label
Lemert (Causes of crime)
Deviancy amplification Spiral
If a moral entrepreneur changes how we view a crime from a form of primary deviance to secondary it can lead to self fulfilling prophecies and further crime.
Braithwaite (labelling)
Argues that labelling offenders can be used for good through reintegrative shaming. The person is presented as a good person who has done something bad and not a bad person as a whole.
Murray & Herrnstein
Biological differences
Murray
Cultural deprivation and the underclass
Clarke
Rational choice theory –> Crime occurs when the potential rewards outweigh the risks
Young
Relative Deprivation
Leftist realist cause of crime
Marginalisation
Lea and Young
Leftist realists –. Subcultures of criminality form as people fail to reach society’s goals.
Katz
Postmodernists –. Thrill seeking –> replaces absent masculinity due to the decline of male jobs.
Macpherson
Lord Macphersons report found institutional racism had been crucial in the mishandling of Stephen Lawrence’s murder case.
Holdaway
Canteen culture –> culture of racism in police force
Lea and Young (ethnicity and crime)
Relative deprivation –> Ethnic minority’s twice as likely to be in deep poverty than white people –> economic exclusion
Moynihan
Cultural deprivation –> specifically the cycle of spf in black communities leads to education being failed
Hall
The bourgeoise use racism as a tool to divide and conquer the proletariat. He uses the example of the moral panic surrounding black muggers in the 70’s today you could argue the same about immigration
Pollack
Chivalric Thesis –> gender role socialisation means that male members of the criminal justice system are chivalric towards women and more leninant
Heidensohn (justice)
Radical feminist –> Found women were treated very poorly in terms of domestic abuse and sexual assault –> This also stems from gender roles as women acting in a promiscuous manner is not fitting to gender roles.
Heidensohn (gender and crime)
Argues that women are less likely to commit crime because of patriarchal control.
Adler
Liberation thesis –> As women get more free in society they have greater opportunity to commit crime.